Monday, July 20, 2015

What is a mosaic? Well, it is a design, picture, or pattern
that is constructed by putting small colored bits of material onto a
surface. Architectural Mosaics can be
made of colored glass, ceramic, or stone pieces,
set in a type of mortar or cement. Mosaic art can also be made out of paper,
bottle caps, popcorn; whatever.The size
of the pieces used determine the resolution (the fineness of detail that can be
seen in an image); the smaller the pieces the greater the detail of the
picture.

LEGO
mosaics are made with plates of various sizes or bricks attached to a building
plate. LEGO Animated Mosaics uses a MinuteBot® baseplate with bricks, plates
with holes, beams, pins, and gears to create a design with moving parts. It could be manually
operated or possibly be “motorized” with LEGO® Power Functions, if the movement
is a continuous motion. It can also be “robotized” with LEGO® Mindstorms
robotics.

Here
is Olivia’s and Jonas’ Animated Mosaic project is of a Mimon MC and a Two Man
Band in a concert.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

For the Medieval Castle project we did some research on castles from Medieval Times or Middle Ages 450-1500AD and discovered some interesting facts. For example, there was usually a ditch filled with really dirty water around the castle called a moat. The moat served two purposes: one was for defense against enemy attackers because the attackers could not dig under the wall, nor could they get ladders close to the walls, and they would have to swim across, the probably, filthy moat which was often used for the castle’s waste disposal. For the residents of the castle, they were able to cross the moat over a drawbridge. Which brings us to a little physics of simple machines, the drawbridge is an example of a pulley system and the catapult used for flinging rocks, hot metal, and fire balls is a 1st class lever.

So here is Olivia’s and Jonas’ Medieval Castle…

Olivia, grade 5, wrote this story:

Once upon a time in the land of Lionsville, there lived a king named Mark the II. He had a lot of troubles. The castle needed cleaning, and there was a lack of servants.

One day he woke up to the sound of battle. A knight rushed in and told the king, “Sir, the skeletons are about to attack and the skeleton king, King Bones (short for Bonsai) has declared war on us.

Mark the II groaned. There were enough problems already. “Send for the troop,” he commanded! Raise the drawbridge and get the hot water for ready for the Murder Holes.

“Yes Sir!” The knight responded and ran off to make ready for battle.

Finally, after fearce fighting, the battle was won. King Bones and King Mark signed a truce. The castle got its cleaning from the new skeleton servants.

And all was well at last.

Jonas, grade 3, created a cartoon about the castle, this is part of it:

STEM to STEAM

Not to long ago the U.S. educational system realized it was lagging in the areas of math, and science. So STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Math became the new focus in education in an attempt to improve the quality of these subjects, get students interested in these subjects so that we could inspire them to pursue careers in these areas. LEGO Technology and Mindstorms Robotics is a natural tool for teaching STEM.

Now there is a new movement emerging STEM + ART (and DESIGN) = STEAM. Well, you might be saying, “Oh no, not another buzz word.” However, if you think about, Art and Design can be found in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Art and Design can actually help improve on our innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math in our quest to improve the quality of life and our future existence.

And of course, LEGO Technology, Mindstorms Robotics, and littleBits definitely fits in the STEAM objectives.

Learning Code

Inclusion!

Helping an urban community to learn technology!

This non-profit organization was created by one of my former middle school students & FIRST LEGO League team member of the Cyberbots.

Brics~2~Bots Curriculum

Why Brics~2~Bots?

It’s a challenge, it’s hands-on, it’s learning in action. John Dewey set forth the theory that we learn better by doing - we take the knowledge and apply it by building. With LeGology Technology, littleBits Electronics, & MINDSTORMS/TETRIX Robotics Engineering students learn by designing, building, & coding. The benefits of such a curriculum goes beyond the science concepts that can be learned, the math theories that can be explained, and literacy skills that are practiced through communication between students, reflective journals and design worksheets; students express their creativity & learn to problem solve together to reach a goal - creating and inventing “cool devices” capable of awesome tasks. LeGology Technology, littleBits Electronics, & Robotics Engineering (Brics~2~Bots) are great for a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Design, Math) program, because it touches on all these subjects.

To see some of the projects by students at Brics~2~Bots, type in "B2B Lab" in the Search This Blog in the sidebar.

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About Me

I have been involved with LEGO® & robotics since 2002. I was the coach of NYC-FLL championship teams: Techno-Eagles, roboGbots, NYCityzens, Dragonbotz, Vulcabotz, Optibotz & The Cyberbots (FLL & FTC). Currently, I am a part-time robotics consultant who sets up LEGO Technology & robotics programs, conducts NXT & EV3 robotics workshops for schools & various organizations (AMNH). I am the Director/Instructor of Brics~2~Bots; a mini LEGO center that supports the S.T.E.A.M. initiative providing individual & very small group Project & Invention-Based instruction to children, gifted to special needs. Training & mentoring for new FLL coaches is also available. I am un-shamefully an AFOLAR - Adult Fan Of LEGO And Robotics! ;-)